Online game playing has become increasingly popular. Users at remote locations connect to the Internet and play competitive and collaborative games hosted at a website. Typically, when a user desires to play games, they must first decide on the game they want to play, then the user must go through the process of locating a website that provides the game and then searching for additional users to play the game. If the user wishes to change games, the user often must search for another website and users wishing to play the new game.
There are several limitations associated with conventional online game playing systems. First, users often must perform a search of websites to find a website that hosts a desired game. Users are often then forced to go through the process of registering and logging on to each website separately. Frequently users do not know a large percentage of the other users playing games on game websites. The lack of familiarity with other users can degrade the online game playing experience. For example, it can be difficult to match skill levels, and users may not like the manner in which other users play online games.
Therefore, there is a need in the art for online game playing systems and methods that allow users to connect to a computer network to conveniently play collaborative and competitive games with other known users.